Portals, Pillars, and other Contruct DR

[Bengalih]

Wiki says Shroud Portals are Planar Gateways with:
DR10/-, Immunnity to all elemental damage. Light, Force and Negative Energy damage works normally

Wiki says VoN6 Pillars are True Neutral Constructs but gives no additional info.

Few questions:
1) If shroud portals have DR10/- does that means that it matters not if you are using piercing, slashing, bludgeon? I see nothing that indicates that a bludgeoning weapon is preferred, though i have always heard this as advice.

2) Does anyone know more specific stats on the VoN6 pillars, especially on Epic?
I would like to think that a weapon which does well against Shroud portals, does well against these as well?

3) In general, when attacking one of these - what would be considered average/respectable melee dps per tick?

thanks!

[dkyle]

1) Yes. All weapons are resisted equally.
2) Construct bane is your best bet, but honestly, the VoN6 pillars are very easy to knock down. I wouldn't worry about it. I don't remember what does and does not work on them. For Shroud portals, you want Holy or Anarchic, plus Construct Bane or Smiting. Elemental damages do nothing.
3) Difficult question to answer, and it's not worth worrying about. Just do as much as you can with what you have available to you.

[Sarisa]

1) If shroud portals have DR10/- does that means that it matters not if you are using piercing, slashing, bludgeon? I see nothing that indicates that a bludgeoning weapon is preferred, though i have always heard this as advice.

Damage Type doesn't matter. It's 10 DR that cannot be broken in any way. Since that DR cannot be broken, you want additional damage procs or damage die in order to speed up the beatdown. Since Shroud portals are classed as Lawful Evil constructs, True Chaos, Anarchic, Pure Good, and Holy works on them. Construct Bane is a great suffix, as is Smiting with the post update 9 changes to it. Vicious is also a good prefix, as it's unresistible damage in an area where you'll usually have constant healing.

The only time the damage type (slash, bludgeon, pierce) could matter is if you are using a Holy Burst or Anarchic Burst portal beater. Since most melees have at least one Improved Critical feat, you want the weapon to match your Improved Critical feat in order to get more burst damage.

Don't know the answers to the other question, sorry.

[Rdonuno]

Weapon type is irrelevent against portals. The only reason blunt might be preferred is because clay golems have dr/adam + blunt, thus making and adamantine blunt weapon a bit more versatile than a slashing/piercing one.

[Sarisa]

Weapon type is irrelevent against portals. The only reason blunt might be preferred is because clay golems have dr/adam + blunt, thus making and adamantine blunt weapon a bit more versatile than a slashing/piercing one.

Clay Golem DR actually changed in update 9. It's no longer Adamantine+Blunt, but now just Adamantine. Shining Crescents, for instance, fully breaks Claw Golem DR in Epic Wizard King and the bottom floor of New Invasion.

[Maatogaeoth]

Clay Golem DR actually changed in update 9. It's no longer Adamantine+Blunt, but now just Adamantine. Shining Crescents, for instance, fully breaks Claw Golem DR in Epic Wizard King and the bottom floor of New Invasion.

I'll have to try again, but I was attacking them with my Min II falchion the other night and I'm pretty sure I was still getting yellow text.

[Bengalih]

Thanks for those answers.

Reason I was asking was I feel I do pretty decent damage against Shroud portals, I am able to see the number above.

When i am in VoN however I can't see the numbers, and the last time I tried to check in the combat log it looked like it was showing me doing virtually no damage (as in 0-2). Of course alot was going on, and afterwards I couldn't scroll back far enough.

I was wondering if on Epic those pillars have something like DR40/- or something really high. I also wanted to confirm that even with a DR40, wouldn't GCB still pass right through that to give me at least the 3d6 GCB damage?

[Rdonaccount]

yes, gcb is an added magical effect, not affected by dr. It's why blue bars are still encouraged to melee shroud portals, as well.

[TheDearLeader]

Few questions:
1) If shroud portals have DR10/- does that means that it matters not if you are using piercing, slashing, bludgeon? I see nothing that indicates that a bludgeoning weapon is preferred, though i have always heard this as advice.

The DR is "Static", unchanging. You can use any weapon type and get the same effect.

2) Does anyone know more specific stats on the VoN6 pillars, especially on Epic?
I would like to think that a weapon which does well against Shroud portals, does well against these as well?

They have some sort of DR, IIRC. They do take elemental damage, though. Really the best idea is to let a caster Disintegrate it. But if you must melee it, whatever your highest DPS weapon is should be fine.

3) In general, when attacking one of these - what would be considered average/respectable melee dps per tick?

thanks!

Average is entirely up to interpretation.

A fully Raged Barb with eSoS with a conservative 5d6+70 Base damage will do 77.5 average base +6d6 for Frenzy + Death Frenzy, meaning 98.5 damage per swing, two handed.

A TWFer of some type (Rogue, Paladin, Ranger, Fighter, whatever) will do varying degrees of damage depending on what weapons they use, and what they're using to drop Fortification of the Portal, if any. A Rogue can use Wrack Construct, and a Fighter can use Improved Sunder.

Either way, a pretty standard weapon is +5 Holy Burst/Anarchic Burst of Greater Construct Bane. Smiting has replaced the suffix for some, but one is Cannith-Craft-able, and one is not.

The "Burst" portion depends on the weapon type you're using, and it's critical profile. But just the +5 Holy Greater Bane is average 37 points of damage. Sitting @ 50 Str, my Kensei with non-kensei +5 weapons has [Weapon] +40 damage main hand, [Weapon] +30 damage off hand. That's just ship buffs, Rage, and Power Surge.

If he was using Khopeshes:
+37 +5 Holy Greater Bane
+4.5 Khopesh
+40/30 Main hand/off hand
-10 DR 10/-
71.5 Main hand/61.5 Off hand. This is the total damage per swing, including every "packet" of damage the weapon puts out, aside from the "Burst" damage. Note that without the +37 back-end damage, the first-number damage looks to be 34.5/24.5 main hand/off hand.

But this will greatly differ according to toon:
-That doesn't count Kensei weapon enhancements
-Some toons have higher/lower strength
-That's TWF, which will hit more often than the THF Barb
-Doublestrike - Fighter/Rogue/Paladin/Monk/Ranger all have varying doublestrike/TWF values
-Paladins can also add 1d6 Holy from Weapons of Good Capstone.
-Aforementioned Fortification drop; Sometimes, Rogues/Fighters can get, and give, the ability to Critically Hit or apply Sneak Attack Damage to the Portals.
-Likewise, Dark Monks can use Touch of Despair and Touch of Death to drop the Portal's Fortification by -25%, and deliver a heaping dose of Negative Energy Damage.

So basically, there's a lot of factors in there, And none of that even counts having a Bard in there.

What dkyle says before me is a good way of summing it up : Just do as much damage as you can with what you have available to you.

I'll have to try again, but I was attacking them with my Min II falchion the other night and I'm pretty sure I was still getting yellow text.

It's weird. Certain Clay Golems, like the ones in Wizzy King, are just DR/Addy now. Others are still Addy+Blunt. I've seen both Post-U9. So yeah.. depends on the Territory.

[Bengalih]

thanks again for the replies.

Next time I am in VoN6 I will try to get a better snip of the combat log. If I still see such strange numbers I will post back more specifically the weapon vs. dmg being inflicted.

[countfitz]

Pick up a Mace of Smiting (from the AH or "grind" the Sub T gargamel's chest) or two. They are the best/easiest to get unless you have 75ish crafting levels and can make a better one. It "should" be adamantine and blugeoning so it breaks golem DR as well.

Alternatively, you could build JUST for portals, in which case holyburst of construct bane and a better (edit Adamantine) base weapon will do slightly better, but you can't craft smiting, and the Mace of Smiting is ML 6 and is effective all the way into shroud.

Also, I haven't done LotB yet, which I hear is Good AND adamantine DR, so maybe crafting Holyburst of Greater Construct Bane will be worth it. I haven't even bought the pack yet though.

[Bengalih]

Pick up a Mace of Smiting ...

Thanks - it isn't much a factor as picking up the gear. I carry dual smiters as well as epic GCB weapons. The issue was more that although I see good numbers on the Shroud Portals, I seemed to be seeing lots of very small or non-existent numbers on the VoN6 pillars - and mostly wanted to know if something was up with them.

At this point I am under the impression that either my combat log was bugged, or I was looking at it incorrectly. Hopefully next time it looks more normal, else I'll be back.

[lugoman]

What about the new Cannith quest line? I was thinking of making an anarchic burst, adamantine gcb but am now thinking maybe holy burst instead. Are the robots in the cannith quest evil? If you are going to make 1 gcb would it be anarchic or holy burst? I am sick of farming ore.

[dkyle]

What about the new Cannith quest line? I was thinking of making an anarchic burst, adamantine gcb but am now thinking maybe holy burst instead. Are the robots in the cannith quest evil? If you are going to make 1 gcb would it be anarchic or holy burst? I am sick of farming ore.

I'd say Holy Burst. The Lord of Blades and his Paladins, have DR/Good+Adamantine. I also like Vicious Adamantine of Construct Bane to use against unaligned golems, including the titans in MA.

The only things Anarchic is important for is Maruts, but they're not a big deal, and you don't need adamantine against them.

[Bufo_Alvarius]

Dont forget vicious as a prefix. I wouldnt craft them but vicious of smiting/gcb is a great lootgen weapon.

[JeffreyGator]

AA slayer arrows and Manyshot are a wonderful thing to beat portals with as well.